大象传媒

My memoirs by Brenda

I vividly remember the day World War II broke out. It was Sunday 3rd of September. I was 9 years old and I was playing with Bernice in her garden with her dolls house.

Suddenly everything went quiet, then all the people in the street came out of their doors. They were all talking at once, but I didn鈥檛 know what they were talking about.My mum then called for me to come home and have my dinner. I went in and asked my mum what they were talking about. She told me that a war had started between Britain and Germany.

My mum was worried what was going to happen, but my dad said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry Lil, it鈥檒l all be over inside a year鈥�.
Things were quiet for a while and I never realised there was a war on. Then one night all hell broke loose. I heard this loud noise and then my mum came running in the room with my younger sister Pam under her arm.

She cried, 鈥淢y babies, my babies鈥�, and we all went down the shelter, I didn鈥檛 realise what was going on. When we went in the shelter there was a foot of water in the bottom. Dad said, 鈥淲e can鈥檛 stay here lets go home鈥�. We were lucky there were no bombs near us. My dad said, 鈥淚 will put a couple of bunk beds in the shelter for the kids and a mattress on the floor for me and your mum鈥�. It was very comfy.

I lived opposite the school so when the sirens went off I went home to our shelter (time off from school). I never worried about the war, I forgot it was still on until the sirens went off. We slept in the shelter most nights.

But it changed one night. It was a bad raid and seemed so close. When I went to school the next day I knew something was wrong. Everyone was quiet when we all went to assembly and our head teacher told us that one of my friends and her family had a direct hit on their shelter and they were all killed, six with their mum and dad. That鈥檚 when I realised the war was awful and I cried for the first time.

I will never forget it. If they had stayed in their house they might still be alive today. It was so sad. As the war went on we carried on living normally, playing and looking for shrapnel from the bombs, seeing who got the biggest piece. When you鈥檙e young you always want to get the best out of life, but I鈥檓 glad I lived through it.

As time went on I got used to the raids, except for the fact that wherever we went we had to take our gas masks with us. I wasn鈥檛 very good at school. I remember the teacher - who I didn鈥檛 like - in particular over the 鈥楲orna Doone incident鈥�. She鈥檇 told us to read the book then write an essay about it the following week. I鈥檇 forgot about it and was scared.

As it happens I sat next to a brainy girl and I鈥檓 ashamed to say that I copied her鈥檚. Unfortunately, the teacher saw me and sent me outside to write it on my own. Exactly what I wrote I don鈥檛 remember but I know that it resulted in the paper being returned to me with 鈥楻ubbish鈥� wrote on it and six swipes of the ruler on the palms of my hands. You can be sure that I read every book after that.

The only thing I was good at was gym and netball. I loved it. I remember Mrs Gray, she was quite young and very nice. One day she said she wanted seven dancers for a competition and we had to perform at the Victoria Rooms.

We were so excited as we all got called to the school hall. We had a rehearsal to see who would be picked. I was hoping I would be one of them, so when the day came we were all waiting anxiously, then my name was called out. I was so excited. The dance called for one devil and six demons. I was one of the demons, and the music we were to dance to was the rousing 鈥楶eer Gynt鈥� by Grieg.

Every day we were called out to rehearse, so we missed a lot of lessons. Good!! But I loved it. We were getting better every day but we had to dance with bare feet, I didn鈥檛 care though as I was going to Victoria Rooms, which I had always wanted to do.

I was sorry when the rehearsals had finished as we had so much fun preparing for the competition. I felt so important, we all did. We had a coach take us there and had specially made demon costumes which we changed into on arrival.

We waited a while then it was our turn to go on. Mrs Gray said, 鈥淒o your best girls鈥�. We were all excited and we did the best we could, as Mrs Gray had asked. Then after everyone had completed their dance, the judges came out and we all crossed our fingers, then he said, 鈥淭he Devil and Demons are the winners鈥�. We were over the moon then we were presented with the winners鈥� trophy. Mrs Gray was so proud of us.

The next day, Mrs Lucas, our headmistress, called us into the main hall with the cup and everyone applauded us on our success. Mrs Lucas placed the trophy in a glass cabinet in her room so that she look at it with pride.

I left school in 1943 when I was fourteen. As I was no academic I never had a choice of what I wanted to do, not like the youth of today. So, my mum took me for an interview in a factory near our home where she鈥檇 worked when she was young, and there I stayed for 7 long years, it was a very hard work and I hated every minute of it.

I was working in the factory when the war ended, I was 15 at the time. I used to fetch things for the older girls there, most of whom were dating American G.I鈥檚 at the time. I used to wish I was older so that I could go out with them as well. The girls would bring in the chewing-gum and lipsticks that the Yanks had given them and share it out. I used to love to hear all their stories.

One day in work, one of the girls, who was very glamorous, said to me that she had two dates with two different Yankie sailors at the same time but as she could obviously only make one of them she asked me to make up so that I would look older and could turn up at one of the dates for her. She said he was very nice.

I don鈥檛 know what my mum would have said but I didn鈥檛 tell her. But I made up my mind to go. I was very thin and flat chested and looked young even with all the make-up and dangly earrings so I went and met him outside the Gaumont Cinema. I saw him standing there and as he was a nice looking chap I went up to him, very nervously, and said 鈥淰era was ill and she told me to tell you鈥�. He looked me up and down and I felt about 10 years old.

We went to the Pics, he never spoke at all so when we came out he said, 鈥淲ell, cheerio kid鈥�, and went. I vowed there and then I would never go on a blind date again and I never did: it was awful, but it was an experience and that鈥檚 what life is all about. If you didn鈥檛 take chances life would be so dull.

About that time I joined the YWCA. It was a small hall with one stove in the middle of the room. Boys used to go as well but it was mostly girls who went. It was somewhere to go where you could meet up with your friends and it was only a 5 minute walk from my house.

We went there most nights and would sit around the stove in the winter. Unfortunately, that鈥檚 where I learned to smoke and we would pass around one cigarette between us. This is one thing I wish I had never done but when you鈥檙e young you do try most things.

The lady who ran the YWCA was very nice but we used to play her up. I don鈥檛 know how she put up with us but she did and I鈥檓 glad she did as I don鈥檛 know what I would鈥檝e done if it hadn鈥檛 been for that club. We even went on holiday with them to Weston-Super-Mare and had a wonderful time.

We also went on holidays working on farms, earning money every day picking strawberries. We had to lie on the ground to get at them but the more we picked the more we got paid. On the evenings they would have dances and games. They were wonderful days and we used to go there every year, right up until it stopped operating.

We went to Manchester one year - this was the furthest I鈥檇 ever been. There was 6 of us and we went there on the train. We were very excited. It was full of people of different nationalities and it was very interesting getting to know them all.

Every morning this lorry came and picked us up and took us to different farms. Once there we saw tractors waiting in a the fields and thought that we would have to drive them ourselves, but we just had to walk behind them picking up the potatoes as the swirling blades dug them up. It was piecework and I never worked so hard in my life but we really enjoyed it in the open air and the money was good.

I remember that my best friend Sheila fell for the driver of the lorry and one day I couldn鈥檛 believe it when I saw her dressed up in very high heeled shoes, as we were going to a dance, just to try and impress him. When we got there, however, the farmer took one look at her and sent her back to the camp - it had all been a waste of time as the lorry driver was married anyway. We all had a laugh though as she was so funny.

When I was 16 I had quite a shock when one of my friends asked me if my mum was having a baby. I thought that this couldn鈥檛 be true as she was 40 and too old, but it turned it was true and all I could think of was myself, the good times I was having enjoying myself and how this might end if she wanted me to baby-sit and I told my mum that as I was working there would be no way I could do it.

I鈥檓 sure the baby was a mistake as I don鈥檛 think my mum wanted any more, but she said that it might be a boy and that Dad had always wanted a boy. The baby, however, was yet another girl.

So, Dad had 3 girls: he was upset as he was going to call him Sam, but that鈥檚 one thing we can鈥檛 choose and when we saw her she was so lovely and got very spoilt. It was around this time that Dad got an allotment and spent most of his time there.

The hours were long in the factory so I went home to lunch on Mondays as we always had bubble n鈥檚queak from Sunday鈥檚 leftovers. I remember there was always washing hanging around and dangling down when I was trying to eat. Some times on a Wednesday Sheila and I would take the afternoon off and go to The Berkeley up Park Street: it was a tea dance and was very posh. I loved it but I think that management started getting suspicious about us taking the same afternoon off so we stopped doing it. I really missed it when we stopped going there.

I don鈥檛 know why I鈥檓 writing about my life but putting it down on paper makes me realise that things weren鈥檛 so bad in those days. I would like to have had a career but it wasn鈥檛 to be so I just had to be satisfied with my life as it was. I was lucky I had a lovely husband who I was married to for 45 happy years, before his death four years ago and still have my son, and I wouldn鈥檛 have changed all that for anything.

Happy times and sad times but that鈥檚 life. I am 75 now but I still vividly remember those days.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.